Two weeks ago I was visiting my friend Beate at Swedish Medical Center. She needed an MRI to investigate whether she suffered any injuries from her latest fall. Five staples closed her head wound.
As a visitor to the hospital, I let my eyes roam randomly about the 12th floor area, mindlessly looking at nothing in particular. It seemed that no matter in which direction I looked, there sat an array of free brochures, pamphlets and flyers promulgating Swedish's expertise on illnesses and procedures. It appears the medical profession has learned from marketing experts that it pays to advertise.
One particular flyer's title startled me. It announced that naturopathic services now were available at Swedish centers. Later, after wishing Beate a goodnight, I called the telephone number and asked for details. "Is it true?" I asked. "Does Swedish Hospital offer naturopathic modalities to patients who ask for them?"
The person responded affirmatively. I continued: "Are these doctors graduates of Bastyr University in Seattle, or the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland?"
"Probably," she replied, "because they have N.D. degrees." I thanked her and hung up the phone.
How interesting, I thought. Here I was, sitting in an allopathic-type hospital that likely had been pooh-poohing alternative medicine styles for decades. The American Medical Association (AMA) used to categorize naturopathic medicine in the genre of voodoo/witchcraft remedies.
And, on a personal note, two of my friends are currently cancer patients: Beate, who is being treated with AMA-endorsed, allopathic (a.k.a. "Western medicine") techniques, as well as another, who opted to use a naturopathic approach.
Rereading that flyer over a cup of coffee made me flash back two decades. I recalled my involvement with the naturopathic community in the early 1980s, when I was invited to assist two US-based colleges achieve recognition and accreditation. Bastyr University hired me to coordinate their self-study for the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.
It worked. They were accepted into the universe of accredited colleges. The good word spread quickly... the next thing I knew, the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Ore., hired me as president. After two years of heading the Portland college, I was enticed to Toronto to consult for one year with the only existing naturopathic college in Canada.
After that four-year, full-time involvement with naturopathic medicine, I felt like I was the most knowledgeable non-N.D. in North America. A basic philosophical principle separates allopaths from naturopaths in their approaches to healing.
The colleges of naturopathy preach, "First, do no harm," which is part of the Hippocratic oath. For example, naturopaths do not perform mastectomies, nor do they use chemotherapy or believe in immunizations. They do accept acupuncture, Chinese medicine and natural child births. Naturopaths have no hospitals of their own, and they do not operate any research facilities such as Fred Hutchinson or Swedish Cancer Institute. Each naturopathic college operates clinics where their students learn alternative healing techniques such as homeopathy and hydrotherapy.
Now perhaps you can understand why, two decades after being engaged in the political/medical battle to gain recognition and respectability for alternative medicine, I was astonished to learn that a well-respected, allopathic, AMA-type medical complex like Swedish Medical Center also employs naturopathic doctors.
Here I must add my caveats regarding this example of symbiotic medical relations: If you use a search engine, such as Google, to find alternative treatments for cancer on the Internet, you will discover hundreds of ideas written and supported by hundreds of persons who purport to "have the cure" for cancer.
My recommendation is that patients stay with certified, accredited medical professionals, such as those individuals approved to work within an accredited hospital such as Swedish. Otherwise you could be misled by testimonials, posted on the Web and written by persons touting very suspicious credentials.
If you search for "cures" for other ailments such as, say, obesity, you'll be inundated with a preponderance of bizarre remedies. For example, I would never seek naturopathic remedies for treating my glaucoma and central vein occlusion. Nor would I expect a naturopathic doctor to have performed my cataract surgery last week. Just a warning - it always pays to study and do your homework, especially when it comes to protecting your health.
Naturopaths played no role in the GENOME PROJECT which made international news and eventually may lead to significant cures in cancer. That's another huge difference between an N.D. and M.D.: naturopaths depend upon basic scientific achievements published by the allopathic professionals. On the Internet you can find hundreds of silly references to cures which generally involve colonics and juice diets. And many of the alternative cures/healing schemes use the enema theory of cleansing.
Plus, some alternative therapy practitioners depend upon pseudo-science to treat ill-informed folks. I once was told by a practitioner of iridology that my hemorrhoids could be diagnosed and treated simply by looking at my eyes and studying the design of my irises! That's one example of the sort of unscientific material that exists in the universe of alternative medicine. The absence of accepted scientific methods to test and document many so-called alternative cures creates suspicion among most allopathic-trained physicians.
Personally, I'd stay with approved, validated and reliable practitioners. If I'm in pain and in need of relief, I'd see my regular doctor; if that doesn't work, I'd visit a doctor of osteopathy or a chiropractor; if that failed, I'd visit a naturopath at Bastyr's clinic or Swedish Medical Center.
Post-script: a remembrancebr>
Where would I go to fix a "black eye?" Well, I would take a time machine back to the 1950s, to visit the drug store where I interned and sold medicinal leeches along with all the items typically found in a neighborhood pharmacy. The owner/pharmacist I worked under sold those leeches for $1.50 each. He was a naturopath and didn't know it! Everyone referred to him as "Doctor Ray."
When Ray called, "Bernie, bring me one," I knew exactly what that meant. I'd proceed to the refrigerator and locate the container housing the leeches. Using sterile tweezers, I'd extract one of the things, carefully placing it into a smaller container onto which I'd stick a typed label.
"Here, I'll put it on," Ray would say, reassuring the customer that everything was okay. "You just stand still and close your eye." With the skill of a surgeon, he'd place the medicinal leech on the customer's bruised cheek, explaining that there would be no pain. He would ease their anxiety about its removal by telling them that the leech would release automatically and fall off when it was fully gorged with the "bad" blood.
Ray gave each person the same biology lesson about how a leech has a special medicine it injects into the cheek that makes the black eye go away quicker than the body's own rate of healing. This is how I learned about alternative medicine long before it became vogue. Dr. Ray was such an avant-garde healer!
If he was around, he'd be as pleased as I was to read the Swedish Medical Center flyer advertising the availability of naturopathic remedies.
Bernie Sadowski is a freelance writer living in Magnolia.[[In-content Ad]]
